Greatest prep basketball season ever? Looking back at the Ball brothers era

Driving along the 71 Freeway toward the Inland Empire, you pass Chino Hills High and immediately think of the Ball brothers and the greatest season of high school basketball excellence.

- BY ERIC SONDHEIMER

LEVAR BALL cheers his three sons during a game between Chino Hills and Immanuel High on March 12, 2016. The team went undefeated.

(Photographs by LOUIS BIMCO Los Angeles Times)

It led to “SNL Weekend Update” skits of their father, LaVar, who was a soothsayer telling everyone that his boys would be stars while granting any and all interviews to media and fans alike. No high school team in Southern California has generated more interest and excitement. You had to line up hours before tipoff to get into gyms. Then the fun began — dunks, shot attempts from well beyond NBA three-point range and fans begging for autographs from teenagers at a public school.

They were the teenage Harlem Globetrotters during the 2015-16 season.

“It was crazy, something we never thought was going to happen,” said Steve Baik, who coached Chino Hills during the 2015-16 season. “We were learning on the fly, getting extra security, managing ticket sales, creating guest lists. It was a storybook situation.”

The team would go 35-0, winning Southern Section and state championships. Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball became social media sensations. Anyone with a camera sought to maximize the moment. And yet, as big of a circus atmosphere that it became, the focus never changed. They wanted to go unbeaten and prove they were the No. 1 team in the nation.

This is the 10th anniversary of a season that makes people smile when they reminisce about all the personalities involved, all the images they saw, all the greatness that was on display.

Three of the starters would become NBA first-round draft picks — Lonzo, LaMelo and Onyeka Okongwu.

LAMELO BALL, above, and brother Lonzo, right, in action against Foothills Christian a decade ago. Both went on to play in the NBA.